Brookfield Man Killed
In Tractor Accident
By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

A 65-year-old West Brookfield man was killed Monday, after apparently being pulled under the tractor he was standing next to, as it rolled in the yard of his Bailey Street property.

John "Jack" Bailey, found pinned under a tractor wheel, was working alone at the time of the accident. His family will never know exactly what happened, his son Richard Bailey said yesterday.

Richard Bailey, one of five children and one of many relatives gathering at the family homestead this week, said his mother went out to look for her husband, after she came home from work Monday and didn’t find him there to greet her, as he usually did.

After looking in vain in the fields around the house, Judy Bailey found her husband under the tractor. It wasn’t far from the house, but was in a place "that wasn’t necessarily in the line of sight," her son said. The old Massey-Ferguson—one of several tractors and cars that Bailey had lovingly restored—was later found to be in neutral.

Richard Bailey said his father had been out mowing with another tractor earlier in the day. He had parked that one, come to the house, and had then headed back out to his other tractor, the Massey-Ferguson, probably to switch the equipment on back.

The family has theorized that Bailey decided to get some gas for the tractor, and that the tractor may have rolled or "lurched" forward—depending if it had been in or out of gear—as he walked alongside it.

Bailey had been between the tractor and an outbuilding at the time, and the nearer big wheel may have pulled Bailey under, his son said. It may have also been that the tractor started to roll, and his dad, "in a split moment, instead of trying to pull away, might have tried to stop it."

State police reported this week that rescue crews and police responded to the Bailey residence for a report of a person pinned under a tractor at about 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. Bailey was pronounced dead at the scene.

In their Monday night release, police said the accident appeared accidental, but that the investigation was ongoing.

This week’s incident was the second fatal tractor accident in Brookfield in four years. Farmer Rae Peck67, was killed when his tractor, carrying a round bale on a front-mounted loader, rolled over on him, in October, 2003, on his Churchhill Road farm.

What He Loved

Jack Bailey was a "vigorous, active man," who loved nothing more than tending his "impeccable" homestead and his loss comes as a huge shock to the family and the neighborhood, observed his nearest neighbor Anita Kelman this week.

"He was really happy out there, on his tractor," she said. "Mowing the back 40 was what he really, really loved to do—to putter at home, and keep everything gorgeous."

For the last year, Bailey had been able to lavish full-time energy on his homestead. According to son Richard, he had sold just last year his generator sales and service business, Brookfield Service, LLC.

The younger Bailey said his family moved from New Jersey to their West Brookfield farmhouse in 1980. At that time there were just four of them—Richard, his brother Kevin, their mom, Judy, and their step-father Jack Bailey.

The early 1880s farmhouse, which had been vacant for 30 years, needed a lot of work. Jack Bailey did it all, around the demands of a full-time job as a security guard at Norwich University, where his wife still works.

Although he quickly made the place "livable," Bailey continued to improve and carefully maintain his homestead for the rest of his life.

He also loved to restore old vehicles, including his prize, a 1932 "Rockne" Studebaker. Richard Bailey said his dad had given him a 1965 Thunderbird, and had been about to present his brother Kevin with a 1965 Falcon.

What kind of man was Jack Bailey? Here is a tribute from a loving stepson:

"He was absolutely fun loving, but very intelligent and insightful at the same time," Richard Bailey said. "He was sensitive—he wasn’t trying to play the clown—but he was always willing to be the positive character in a room."

Richard Bailey noted that his dad "absolutely adored my mother," and he not only routinely greeted her as she came home from work, but often cooked supper, as well.

Survivors also include several siblings, 10 grandchildren, and nieces and nephews, including one nephew who is living at the Bailey home, while attending Norwich University.

An obituary for Jack Bailey appears in the B-section of this week’s Herald.